This is our last visit to Dubrovnik for the 21^st European Champions Cup and the 1^st Women’s European Champions Cup.

The Open event has so far been dominated by BRIDGE CONTACT CLUB (Switzerland), who ran away with the round robin qualifying competition and then bested Lithuania in the semi-final. In the Open final, they play BRIDGE ADDAURA ASD (Italy), who defeated the Norwegians to reach this stage.

In the Women’s event, GERMAN CHAMPIONS dominated the qualifying rounds, but they were defeated by ODENSE BRIDGECLUB (Denmark) in the semi-final. In the Women’s final, the Danes take on FRENCH CHAMPIONS, who saw off TURKISH CHAMPIONS in their semi-final. The French start with a 0.1-IMP advantage, having finished above the Danes in the round robin.

As usual, we start with some problems. Firstly, with only your opponents vulnerable, you are North holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

Next, with neither side vulnerable, you are sitting in the East seat with:

What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, with both sides vulnerable, you hold in the South seat:

What action, if any, do you take?

While you consider those, we start late in the first half on a deal where all four North players had to answer the first of the problems above.

In the Open, this was the multi-national table, with two Dutchmen flying the Swiss flag, and a Pole and an Israeli representing the Italian national champions. Piotr Zatorski (left) raised his partner’s weak 2♠ opening to game, Sjoert Brink doubled and, in the problem position posed above, Bas Drijver opted to defend.

The defence started with two rounds of hearts, declarer ruffing in dummy and playing a club. Zatorski ruffed the heart continuation, ruffed a club in his hand, and led a diamond towards dummy’s king. Brink won with the ♦A and exited a diamond, so declarer ruffed another club. The ♠A and a spade to the king now allowed declarer to take a third club ruff with his last trump, establishing the thirteenth club for his tenth trick. A magnificent E/W +590.

It is possible to defeat 4♠-doubled, but doing so is not easy. Brink must switch to a low diamond at trick two. Declarer wins with the ♦K and plays a club, but when the defenders now play the ♦A and a low diamond, declarer has to ruff with the ♠K, which prematurely removes a vital entry from dummy. Declarer can then no long reach the long club and will go one down. Not that N/S +100 would have been that much better for the Swiss.

The other table in the Open and one table in the Women’s final produced the same auction:

In the same position, Luca de Michelis (right) for the Italians in the Open final and Carole Puillet for the French Champions in the Women’s event, both advanced to 5♥ on the North cards. In the Open, that was N/S +680 and a massive 15 IMPs to BRIDGE ADDAURA ASD.

In the Women’s event, declarer made 11 tricks, so N/S +650. A good result for the French? Maybe…

Like her French counterpart, Julie Marina Sigsgaard also bid 5♥ on the North hand. However, at this table, Ella Rosthoej (left) hadn’t finished, and she raised to slam.

That left Anais Leleu with a 26-IMP opening lead problem. Declarer has an unavoidable diamond loser, so cashing the ♠A at trick one would add 13 IMPs to the French score.

When Leleu chose to lead her singleton club, it was the Danish supporters waving their flags. Sigsgaard won in dummy, drew three rounds of trumps, and cashed her clubs, pitching dummy’s spade. When she then ran the ♦J, the finesse lost, but the ♦K was now the only trick for the defence. A huge N/S +1430 and 13 IMPs to ODENSE BRIDGECLUB.

Both matches were still relatively close at the midway point. In the Open, the Swiss led by 6 IMPs (35-29). In the Women’s final, the French had built a 17-IMP advantage (51-34). However, The Great Dealer had saved a bumper set of hands for the second half of this final, and such small differences could disappear in the blink of an eye. The action began on just the second deal of the set.

In the Women’s final, the French pair failed to get to grips with this combination. Leise Hemberg seems to have described the East hand fairly accurately, showing 4-6 in the minors, a heart stopper, and somewhere in the 15-17 HCP range. With a fit for both of her partner’s suit, the ♥K now probably working and the ace in her own suit, it looks like West’s pass of 3NT is too committal. If 3NT is making (very likely), then so too is game in one or both minors. It seems that it cannot cost to investigate slam on the way to a five-level game. E/W +460.

Margaux Kurek Beaulieu (right) has begun her career in junior bridge with a bang. At the 2022 European Championships in Veldhoven, she collected a silver medal from the Under-26 Women’s Teams, and she won the Under-26 Women’s pairs playing with Clara Bouton. Earlier this year, back at the same venue for the World Youth Championships, she again earned a silver medal as part of the French Under-26 Women’s team. To cap things off, at the 2023 European Youth Pairs Championships, she finished sixth in the Open Under-26 Pairs and then collected another silver medal in the Mixed Pairs. Kurek Beaulieu is certainly, one to watch, despite the dodgy headgear 😊.

On this deal, Kurek Beaulieu got the French auction on the right track by raising diamonds immediately. (If Rindahl did not have a forcing 3♦ available at the other table, some system improvement is perhaps called for.) With her excellent offensive hand, Leleu committed to a minor-suit contract with a 4♣ cue-bid and was soon thereafter rolling out Blackwood.

Leleu won the spade lead with the ace, cashed the ♥K, and played two high trumps ending in her hand. She then cashed the ♥A, pitching a club from dummy. Whether the clubs broke or not, declarer’s only loser was the high trump. E/W +920 and 10 IMPs to FRENCH CHAMPIONS.

In the Open final, Andrea Manno (left) also had to start with a fourth-suit 2♥ after Massimiliano di Franco’s reverse. Perhaps fearing that his partner did not hold real diamonds, Manno then agreed clubs at the four-level. One cue-bid, and Manno jumped to slam.

Unlike the French women, the Italians had reached the poorer of the two slams. With an unavoidable diamond loser, declarer here also needed the clubs to behave here. Of course, with Q-x onside, Di Franco couldn’t go wrong: E/W +920.

After the multi-way Polish Club opening, Jacek Kalita rebid 2♣ showing 15+ and at least a 5-card suit. (A 2♦ rebid would have shown the ’any 18+’ version of the 1♣ opening.) That meant that it was Klukowski who bid diamonds. Kalita raised, so were diamonds now agreed? Did Klukowski’s 4♣ perhaps create confusion as to which suit was set? Whatever happened, after using Blackwood Kalita seemed to try to sign off in 6♣ but, when Klukowski corrected to diamonds which, as we have seen, is the better slam, Kalita obviously mistook his partner’s intention, and bid the grand.

Even with the clubs coming in, the grand slam had very little play. (Ruffing down the ♠K in three rounds to provide two discards is the only chance declarer has.) E/W -50 and a massive 14 IMPs to BRIDGE ADDAURA ASD to get the scoreboard ticking in the second half.

Midway through the stanza, three of the four East players had to decide what to do on the second of this week’s problems.

Anais Leleu’s decision to pass 1♠ certainly could have been right, but not today.

With trumps 5-2, even seven tricks proved to be too much of an ask. Indeed, if North can somehow find a trump lead (or the ♦A and a trump switch), killing dummy, declarer would have been two down. On the club lead, Kurek Beaulieu managed six tricks: E/W -50.

In the same position, Leise Hemberg (right) responded 1NT, which worked out much better. Nell Rindahl raised to 3NT on her powerhouse, and it was not a difficult decision for Hemberg to decide that she preferred the minor-suit game. There was just one trick to be lost in each of the red suits: E/W +400 and 10 IMPs to ODENSE BRIDGECLUB.

In the Open final, a Polish Club auction also got Klukowski/Kalita to game in diamonds. E/W +400.

Here, too, East responded 1NT. Manno advanced with a Gazzilli 2♣, either natural or any 17+. 2♦ from Di Franco would have confirmed a strong enough hand to commit to game opposite the 17+ hand type, so Di Franco bid an artificial 2♥, showing a weak hand. When Di Franco eventually bid diamonds, Manno understandably didn’t like his chances for game, so he gave up. You can sometimes know too much! A heart lead allowed declarer to make an overtrick here: E/W +170, but 6 IMPs to BRIDGE CONTACT CLUB.

With four boards remaining, there was about a game-swing margin in both matches. In the Women’s final, the Danes were ahead by 9 IMPs, 83-74. In the Open, the Italians led by 11, 62-51. All four South players had to decide what to bid on the last of this week’s problems, and the finalists came up with four different answers…

For the French, Anne-Laure Tartarin (left) chose a conservative raise to 2♥ on the South cards. Rindahl showed an invitational spade raise with a 3♥ cue-bid, but Hemberg correctly decided that she didn’t have enough for game. The defenders had a trick in each red suit and two trump tricks against 3♠. E/W +140.

By contrast, Lone Bilde took the exact opposite approach, jumping all the way to 4♥ on the South hand. On another day, perhaps Kurek Beaulieu would have been bounced into the no play 4♠, but the young French star demonstrated experience beyond her years, choosing instead to double and defend.

The defence began with three rounds of clubs, declarer ruffing in hand and playing a spade. Allowed to reach dummy with the ♠10, declarer took ‘advantage’ of the entry to take the losing trump finesse to East’s bare ♥K. There were still two diamonds and a spade to lose. Three down: E/W +800 and 12 IMPs to FRENCH CHAMPIONS, who edged ahead by 3 IMPs with three boards to play.

Brink avoided deciding how many hearts to bid by starting imaginatively with a negative double. Andrea Manno advanced with 2♦ (perhaps natural but more likely a transfer cue-bid, showing a constructive spade raise). When Di Franco retreated to 2♠, Brink now supported hearts competitively at the three-level. Manno, perhaps surprisingly, did not compete to 3♠, so Drijver got to play hearts for 100s. He also failed to divine the trump position, so only seven tricks here too: E/W +200.

Ron Pachtman (right) found the only way to go plus on the South hand. His pre-emptive jump to 3♥ denied West a cue-bid to show an invitational spade raise. On grounds of frequency, perhaps a double is best used to replace the cue-bid in this auction, giving you a game-try in spades rather than a takeout double to show the minors? Something for regular partnerships to consider.

Forced to guess, Klukowski predictably chose the option with the largest upside and jumped to game. With four unavoidable losers, that was E/W -100 and 7 IMPs to BRIDGE ADDAURA ASD.

The Italian champions scored 37 unanswered IMPs in the second half of this set. They won the set 53-17 to record a notable victory by 29 IMPs (82-51) over the Bermuda Bowl champions.

Congratulations to BRIDGE ADDAURA ASD (Luca de Michelis, Massimiliano di Franco, Giuseppe Failla, Andrea Manno, Ron Pachtman and Piotr Zatorski).

Congratulations too, to the beaten finalsists after an impressive tournament, BRIDGE CONTACT CLUB (Pierre Zimmermann, Sjoert Brink, Bas Drijver, Jacek Kalita, Michal Klukowski, Michal Nowosadzki and npc Fernando Piedra).

In the Women’s final, the Danes closed the gap over the final three deals, but they still came up 1 IMP short. The match finished in an exact tie at 88-88, so the 0.1-IMP carry-forward advantage that the FRENCH CHAMPIONS carried into the match thanks to their higher finish in the round robin proved decisive.

Congratulations to the French Champions (Margaux Kurek Beaulieu, Anais Leleu, Carole Puillet, Sabine Rolland, Valerie Sauvage and Anne-Laure Tartarin).

With the U.S. Fall Nationals in Atlanta looming large on the horizon, we are heading for a brief stopover in the UK now. We will just have time to bring you the best of the action from the final weekend of the English Premier League before heading across the Atlantic to the ‘Home of The Braves’.